I feel like I am discovering a whole new world. For my latest project, I have to do a lot of stuff in Java (1.6). While I am familiar with Java the language, I am a total newbie when it comes to Java related technologies, frameworks, and tools. Some of the specific Java technologies and tools I am using are JAXB/JAX-WS web services, Spring Framework, WebSphere Application Server, Maven, Rational Software Architect/Eclipse IDE.

Java Learning Resources

Here are some of the resources I found very useful while learning Java and related technologies in the past several weeks:

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C# Features I Wish Java Has

I am sure Microsoft was pretty much thinking about Java when they created C#. The Java language itself it very similar to C# in terms of syntax, keywords, and use of punctuations such as semicolons and braces. I have found that most language features in C# have equivalents in Java. However, there are a few notable exceptions which I particularly miss:

Code regions – I use code regions extensively in C#. Eclipse does support code outlining but it’s only for existing code structures (methods) and is not nearly as flexible as c# regions.

Properties – Java only has fields and methods. “Properties” are implemented as get* and set* methods. I really miss properties, especially after typing 10 getters and setters in a row.

var keyword – Another small but very nice feature in C# that helps make code more compact and reduce typing.

Verbatim (@) strings – Very handy for regular expressions and other string literals that contain lots of escape characters.

Java is still evolving. Here’s hoping that some of the above features will make it into the next version of the language.